Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Darrell Waltrip Takes-Over ESPN's "NASCAR Now"

You really have to tip your hat to the newly re-vamped NASCAR Now program on ESPN2. The wholesale changes this season in on-air personalities and content have paid-off in an interesting TV series that covers all parts of the sport.

On Wednesday, it was Ryan Burr hosting the show. Little did he know what he was in for on this day. Two of the biggest talkers in NASCAR were the guests and they both did their best to keep their reputations intact.

Darrell Waltrip from Fox Sports and Ed Hinton from ESPN.com were along for a "mini-roundtable" discussion about a wide variety of NASCAR topics. All Burr had to do was mention a topic and then stand back. It might have helped if he had ducked.

Waltrip wants to start the NASCAR season in California on New Year's Eve with a night race followed by fireworks. His point was the season should run from January through September to avoid the tough conflict with the NFL and college football.

Hinton was all about throwing darts at Brian France and started by saying Waltrip should be Commissioner of NASCAR. Hinton followed that by suggesting the best way not to compete with the NFL was to cut The Chase to five or six races with drivers being eliminated every week. Waltrip said The Chase was "too long and there was not enough drama."

"If I can interject here let's move to the next topic," said Burr trying his best to direct traffic. Burr tossed-out the economy as the next issue and then ran for his life.

Waltrip called for owners to be more efficient and for NASCAR to open the tracks on Friday for testing. He has long proposed that testing be limited to the tracks where the Sprint Cup Series was racing that same weekend. His point is that it would create a real off-season for the racing families and keep testing expenses down.

Hinton's contention is that reality is reality. NASCAR will not fade away if everyone does not have a private jet or multiple team engineers. He believes that NASCAR has weathered earlier storms and this financial problem might wind-up re-inventing the sport simply from necessity.

Burr's final question was who should be "driver of the year?" Waltrip picked Jimmie Johnson should he win a third championship. Hinton picked Carl Edwards because he created the most excitement this season for the fans and the sport.

The final challenge for Burr was to wrestle these two on the topic of what would be better for the sport. Edwards coming from behind to win or Johnson getting the third championship?

Waltrip went for the dominance of Johnson. Hinton said the core fans wanted Johnson to win but the casual fans liked Edwards and wanted him to snatch the title away in the final race. Edwards would get "the swing voters."

"When we were putting this show together, I thought we might need an hour," said Burr. "But after listening to you guys talk we needed more like five hours." Burr barely had time to say a quick goodbye before another edition of NASCAR Now was done.

Credit goes to the production team for pairing-up these two and getting the little-used Hinton back on TV. This type of discussion in NASCAR-land now only takes place on Sirius Satellite radio's 24-hour NASCAR channel.

Hopefully, either ESPN or SPEED will see the value of having regular discussions on NASCAR topics with racing veterans and journalists and create a TV series for 2009. Even in this fifteen minutes of conversation, more ideas and topics flowed than NASCAR Now had seen in a very long time. This program re-airs at Midnight Eastern time for those who missed the original airing.

For those of you who have been asking, you can click directly on the picture to see it full-size. I think you can guess the track if you look closely. I will be kind to DW and not relate the year. Great shoes.

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Oddly enough, I happen to come home early today and saw most of the show for the first time in a while.

They could have gone on for 2 hours, Ryan was right. The only bad thing was, they *need* to be in the same room. The feed delay was a little distracting to both of them (and to us.) I don't know if I agree or disagree with the suggestions they made, but it sure could start a lot of interesting conversations...

I only saw the last few minutes but what great two guests and Ryan could hardly get a word in edgewise. What a great idea to change the season from January to September - Nascar has changed so much what's a few months at the start or at the end!

That was by far the best NN this season. It is a shame that it could not have gone on longer and that they could not have been in the same room together. I really liked Darrell's suggestion for the season and he has a really good point.This show was definitely a breath of fresh air and not the politically correct crap that we have come to expect. I definitely would love to see more of this.

Best episode of Nascar Now to date for me. If you missed it then that's a shame. Usually the show is pretty weak if there is no big story going on. So this was a great surprise. And I agree that the chase needs a change, like less races and knocking out drivers. You have to believe it'd be more exciting. Although I'll admit that changing it will just piss off the die-hard longtime fans even more than they already are.

Let me first say during his time way back when I did not like DW. I respected his accomplishments but not him, and his big mouth(JAWS).He would be a lot better in the type settings tonight, and on a Speed show like this next year, and not in the booth. The first couple of years in the booth was O.K., but last year it was not. It was all about Toyoto,DWstore.com,Digger,Mikey,K.B., what they did years ago,which has nothing to do with whats happening now.He gets wound up in the booth, like his brother, and distracts from the race.At the end of the season heard a rumor he would not be back next year, but the last race Fox did, he said see you Daytona next year.J.D., Do you know the Fox crew for next year?bryanh

The track in the DW pic is most definitely Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville TN... note you can see the concrete back straight wall of the quartermile track back behind DW.. then look even further back where the big high fence is... that's the back straight of the 1/2 mile track...around 73-74 I'd guess... I spent a LOT of time there as a kid in the late 60's

What is DW running for political office or something? He was on at the beginning of Claire B. Lang's show yesterday as well. Can't we get a respite from this guy even in the months Fox is not showing the races? Is he afraid someone might forget about him or something?

GREAT SHOW - good spirited debate. NASCAR NOW needs to utilize Ed Hinton more. He is not afraid to tackle the tough subjects and tell it like it is. DW ? same old DW, Seems like he is politicing for a job with NASCAR.

I must admit, anytime Ed Hinton is ANYWHERE, I watch. JD, your point about actual issues being discussed is right on target. This has been one of my biggest beefs all year, as it seems the only "free" opinions are now on David Poole's morning show (although even that is in danger with the MRN connection). Get Hinton on more often! Too bad he went to ESPN, because the Hinton/Miller show on WT was one of the best!I am not sure I agree with everything those guys said, but thats the idea- get some REAL opinions out there and let us decide without the NASCAR Koolaid! I do think DW is on to something about the seasonal alignment, which was nice to hear, because he has been decidedly Koolaid-ish as of late.

Does anyone see the similarities between this episode and "Tradin' Paint" on SPEED?Obviously the powers that be seen the electricity in the air on the SPEED show, and thought it would work on ESPN. Perfect combination. Race drivers and journalists.

Awesome, awesome, awesome show! Just goes to show what ESPN can do when they put real personalities on real issues involving NASCAR. DW should be on every show, maybe even get his own little segment for a few minutes, like the opening of Rome is Burning. That'd be cool.

Also, the comment about the competition with the NFL could be that Nascar leaves the "free" networks after the Fox portion and those that do not have cable that may be die hard Nascar fans that cannot afford cable or sattelite lose interest until it comes back on ABC. I have a friend like that and they just lose interest in Nascar after the FOX portion because in these economic times they can't afford cable/satellite. They just use rabbit ears.

I wish that I could have watched that show. It would have probably lifted my spirits after the election results. (my guy did not win. :() I love the Waltrips and try to watch every show that I know that they are going to be on.

Thanks, JD, for the columns about the coverage this weekend. I was at the track and therefore didn't get to watch the coverage. I did listen to the SPEED tv coverage on my scanner.

Ions ago I worked for DiGard when they made the switch and hired Waltrip (I really liked Donnie Allison, and didn't appreciate waltrip' arrival). He was always a talker (it was no accident his nickname was "Jaws") and was not an easy guy to like--and I think he'd be the first one to say that. Now anyway.

DW is still a talker and people still love him or hate him (it's that sizable ego), but one thing you can't take from DW is his love of racing or his knowledge about the sport.

NASCAR needs people like DW on TV, he cares what happens to and in the sport. And it shows.